Meet Guramma

Guramma is a beggar with two small boys and an infant girl. She lives in a tent in a beggar slum with no running water or toilets. She cooks on an open fire. Her husband is a drunkard and beats her for money. She comes from a family of beggars and has no education, so she begs. When asked why she begs she says, "My children are eating mud. If I don't beg, they will have no food." Now Guramma and many other beggar and poor women come to a friend's center and help make sari throw blankets. They come daily with their children to receive a hot meal, take showers, receive nutritious food to cook, and get the medicines they need.

There are so many like Guramma. They now have the confidence to use a skill to make marketable items such as these beautiful throw blankets. You can read more about this technique below, and if you are interested in one of the vintage sari quilts, please email me at englishrootz@gmail.com.

Vintage Sari Kantha Quilts

Kantha is a type of embroidery popular in eastern South Asia. Vintage kantha throws (quilts) are made from vintage cotton saris stacked for thickness and sewn together with a running hand stitch. Each beautiful quilt is unique, and has different sari patterns and colors on each side. Rural women would make these blankets out of their old saris to keep warm in the cold season.

Life here just got a little easier....

If you know me (Heather), you know my love for Chipotle. I was sad when I moved to cities in the U.S. without one, and even sadder moving to a country without being able to eat it for at least a few years. Then, California Burrito came to India. Not Chipotle, but really, almost the same!!!  Ahh, our food oasis.

Driving in India...Fun, fun, fun!!

Our first year in India we rode auto rickshaws everywhere we needed to go. Our second year, we were assigned a car, which we were elated about. It made life so much easier, or so we thought. We couldn't figure out why India had become a little more stressful our second year. We were so tense all the time. Then we realized....ooooh right, we're driving in India! We are grateful for a car with ac, but the traffic, no one following traffic rules, no parking anywhere, tight streets and the sheer amount of pedestrians and motorcycles causes a little tension!

Here is a picture Brynn took out the back of the window. And this is a considerably calm street with little traffic.

Christmas 2013

December is a wonderful month to reach out even more to the people around us, because it gives us the opportunity to host many nationals for the purpose of sharing why we celebrate Christmas.

Afterwards, we were able to get together with other believers and have a Christmas Eve service and get-together, and spend Christmas day as a family. Here are some pictures of our second Christmas in South Asia.

The kids with friends on Christmas Eve. A friend dressed up and surprised the kids. 

New scooters this year! We are so thankful for our family members who sent packages of presents and decorations!

Brynn's new "excited" face. Look carefully, these are two different pictures.

Our Christmas Party

Here are some pictures from our Christmas party we threw for some poorer people on our street, and some people from the slums. We were so excited with the turn-out. A friend led everyone in songs and gave a message in the local language. We had another friend cook a huge pot of biryani, had sweets and gave out new clothes. We pray it was a blessing to these families - they seemed to have a good time!

Shopping with our house helper for ingredients for the Christmas meal she cooked.

Our house helper's husband busy helping prepare the vegetables for the meal.

The kids help lead the songs.

New clothes for the kids. 

Posing in their new clothes. Sweet little Yoshuda doing a typical Indian pose on the left, but we ended up making her laugh.

American Traditions

We will be busy Christmas Eve and Christmas night, so we decided to make cookies, have apple cider, and watch Christmas movies. Even though it's warm outside and business as usual this week in South Asia, we were able to create the atmosphere in our home at least!

 

Apple Cider

 

 

New Pj's!

Train Rides In India

Between the both of us, Jimmy and I have ridden trains in 3rd world countries, traveled hours in a dug-out canoe on the Amazon and ridden in rickety 2-seater airplanes...that was before marriage, and before kids! Kids change everything - before we'd be up for anything and everything. We've become exhausted, germ-conscious people in a matter of 5 years. Therefore, you will be able to see from the pictures which train ride we preferred!

Back in July we had our first round-trip Indian train ride. The first one was very pleasant. The second, an overnight sleeper train was not as pleasant. Maybe it was because we were supposed to have 3 bunks, but only got two. Or maybe it was because we were the bunk right by the exit and bathroom, so everyone passed us all night to use the restroom. Or maybe because the bathrooms smelled so "lovely". But mostly trying to sleep in a bunk with two children stretched out, leaving me no room, made for a very restless sleep. It was an experience though!

1st train ride: Early morning, coffee, breakfast served, coffee again, nice large seats, ac, very enjoyable train ride.

Return trip: After 3 hours in a car, 4 hours on a plane, we arrive at the train station late at night. As I took this picture we were lost in a sea of people, trying to find our train, with two children and luggage. We were standing out like a sore thumb. It's blazing hot and humid. Not fun.

Finally, found our train, and our bunk. The kids were ecstatic! This was such an adventure for them.

The adults....not so much. His face sums up how we feel about the next 6 hours sharing a toddler sized bunk bed between the four of us. See the man photobombing Jimmy? He's waiting for the bathroom.

But, we are glad to be on our last leg home and ready to get some shut eye!

Or maybe not. I had less than half of the toddler bunk to try and sleep in. Oh well. It made for fun pictures!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays

We've celebrated a lot of birthdays here in the past couple of months - our own birthdays and friends birthdays. I don't even have pictures for all the birthdays we've been to, but here are some!

This was a birthday party of the daughter of a friend of ours. They were so sweet to invite us, as we were surrounded by about 40 of their family members. In India they will feed cake to each other, much like a bride and groom at a wedding. It's a fun photo opp anyway!

Brynn's sweet friend Mira's birthday party. Love all these kids!

Hands down the most fun I've had at a kid's birthday party! This one was at Snow City - a huge indoor place where they blow snow. I actually felt like I was sledding down our driveway in NC. The birthday girl blew out some type of flare on her birthday cake in the dark. Jimmy missed out on this one, so we're going back for sure!

Luke's birthday at school (top picture), and at a friend's house.

Jimmy's birthday w/ a cookie cake. Notice in both pictures Luke couldn't wait to get started on the sweets!

My little party, with a chocolate/Nutella cake made by Jimmy!

City Market

For some reason it took me a year and a half to go to the City Market. Mainly because I never knew how to get there, and if I tried to go there myself, I would be overwhelmed and lost in the crowd...never to find my way out of that place! I went with a local and a couple of friends to buy saris for Christmas gifts, and ended up finding inexpensive Christmas decorations (not easy to find in this city - the inexpensive part).  It was a complete overload of the senses, but fun. I kept snapping pictures instead of focusing on shopping. The pictures don't do it justice - easily half of the almost 10 million people that live in this city were there!

A picture I took from the top of one of the buildings: some of the residences.

Can't Get Enough Shakes!

Just a picture of Jimmy and Brynn at their favorite place...the milkshake stand. Actually I don't know if it's a smoothie or a milkshake, but it's fresh fruit and milk. I don't drink them, so I'm not sure, but Jimmy and Brynn can't resist. 

These stands are everywhere! If we are going by one, this is the scene:

Thanksgiving in India

Our second Thanksgiving in India was a blessing. Although we were not with our families, we have a "family" here, and it was great to get together and enjoy some American dishes!!  Thanks to our friends who brought turkey and wassail/cider - it was as close to home as we could get.

We celebrated as Americans without the nationals, simply because most do not have the day off from work or school, and they really don't like the American food!

Here are some pics from a Thanksgiving celebration overseas.

Dessert Table

Mmmmm!

Luke going straight for dessert. Doesn't everyone have Krispy Kreme donuts at Thanksgiving?
You should!

The kids playing outside....waiting for the food to be ready!